The interlacing, Noise Removal technology and AA in resolutions
over 640x480, and Video Smoothing are supported as well.

There are obvious advantages when transferring MPEG-2 streams even with such
interface as USB 2.0. However, the bandwidth of 480 Mbit/s is enough
for TV tuners (we saw it with the Manli USB TV 2.0). The CPU load
is low, well even low-end processors easily cope with MPEG-2 compression.
Besides, entry-level computers usually don't have the USB 2.0 support.

If internal tuners don't need to look attractive, for external models
it's is very important to look good as it influences user's choice. In
this case the appearance is very exciting.

The power supply LED, USB 2.0 and IR receiver LEDs are in front.

All connectors are on back.

The tuner supports a TV-out , that is why there are two S-Video connectors.
If you need to connect a composite signal source, there're appropriate
adapters. There's also a duplicate audio-out though it's not needed as
sound goes via USB. Anyway, any addition is better than nothing.

We were afraid of opening the case, but the operation was successful.

If it were not for a radio unit I would never think that this is a tuner.
It looks like a real video card having an iron cover for some reason...

Now let's examine it closer.

The high-frequency Philips FQ1216ME/I H-3 module was used yet in ATI's All-In-Wonder.

The tuner has the Philips SAA7114H 9-bit ADC installed on NVIDIA's video
cards.

This is a curious combination of the HF unit and ADC, isn't it?

The cooler makes the tuner even more similar to the video card (here
is what the air vents are needed for).

Compro Technology demonstrates an original approach even regarding minor
parts. No secret that a lot of video cards that generate much heat have
fans based on slide bearings. This card is equipped with the Magnetic
Levitation Fan from Sunonwealth
Electric Machine Industry Co., Ltd., and its principle of operation
is described at company's
site. That is why you shouldn't worry about life time of the bearings.
This a a low-noise cooler and it also has a temperature sensor which can
disable the cooling system if needed.

The bitrate parameters in the recording parameters are simultaneously playback
parameters: this is logical but not that obvious.

At default 4 MB/s the image can even scare you away. Later we will get
back to this issue.

The sensitivity is good, all the channels were found. No pickups, but
they are not typical of external tuners.

The tuner also has a video-out, an exotic feature for tuners, its color
standard coincides with the received signal or one applied to the video-in.
You don't need to adjust anything, only connect an appropriate cable.

The hardware support let the CPU load be 15% at most at capture at the
highest quality settings. Deinterlacing looks perfect; I haven't noticed
any traces of "comb".

MPEG-4 is not supported, and I couldn't find any alternative software
supported by this tuner.

Quality

The quality can be considered good, but I noticed some noisy "strings",
noise above and quite large image fields.

In the driver 3.0.0.6, released right after our correspondence,
the noise elimination filters removed the pickups. Although I didn't have
the tuner by that time I don't see any reasons why I shouldn't believe
this. For example, the 01/03 channel problem of the Compro Videomate
Gold Plus was solved only in the ComproFM 1.3.4.0 released in October
2003.

Secondly, you can correct the image fields. The DWORD Trim register
parameter in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Compro\ComproPVR can help
it. The upper bits control the right and left edges, the lower ones - upper
and lower fields. For example, for trimming 16 pixels the Trim value
is taken equal 0x00100010 (remember about the hexadecimal system, 0010=16).
I hope the next ComproPVR versions will get a respective option.
At least one country will need it.

The sound quality is excellent.

USB1.1 mode

Now we are going to see how the tuner works in such extreme mode.

At the very beginning when we tried to turn off USB 2.0 the Windows
XP went into hysteric and displayed the following message.

we ignored it and ran ComproPVR. The maximum bitrate was limited
at 4 MB/s at that.

Let's see what we got.

While the static scenes look more or less good,

the dynamic ones are not that perfect.

At least, it works. You can even watch video if you have no choice. Taking
into account the tuner's price (MSRP USD$209), it's better to get a USB
2.0 controller though owners of notebooks can have a different opinion.

Remote control

This looks like a good unification; the remote control doesn't differ from
the one we saw last time. It only changed its color to match the tuner.

Conclusion

Please note that we draw up the conclusion taking into account all the
changes that took place after the testing.

Highs

USB 2.0 interface

MPEG-2 hardware support

Excellent build quality

Good audio/video quality

Perfect sensitivity

No pickups

Deinterlacing

Noise Removal and Video Smoothing

All possible connectors for external sources

Video-out

USB 1.1 support

Handy software

Channel Surf sound

Multifunctional remote control

Rich accessory pack

Stylish design

Efficient manufacturer' support

Lows

No FM tuner

Field trimming only by editing the register

Snapshot implementation is not that handy

No MPEG4 support

Audio options unavailable in ComproDVD

This is an interesting product with an attractive design, MPEG-2 hardware
support, a curious cooler and a rich accessory pack. Taking into account
that the market of USB 2.0 TV tuners is still forming let's wish the Compro
VideoMate Live USB2.0 to take a good place there. And certainly, we look
forward to seeing new model with the FM support.